Association of Chartered Teachers Scotland

The ACTS Committee met on Saturday 13^th June in Peebles.

Annie welcomed everyone and thanked them for travelling to Peebles for the meeting.

Membership continues to grow steadily.  It was decided that once charitable status has been gained, the Paypal facility for online subscription payments will be reinstated.  A flyer giving details about ACTS can be sent to all EIS members.  Contacting all Module 1 candidates presents more problems, and solutions will be pursued over the holidays.

The profile of ACTS continues to be high.  Many people made enquiries about ACTS at the GTCS Chartered Teacher Conference on 30^th May in Glasgow.  Members had appreciated the opportunity to hear Prof Andy Hargreaves and enjoyed networking with other Chartered Teachers.  The discussion part of the day was seen as valuable though perhaps too restricted in its focus questions.

It was agreed that ‘good practice’ needs to be given more prominence.  Our next newsletter will feature articles from members on this theme.  Other articles would be welcomed.  Investigations have begun into acquiring access to an Athens account.

There was extended discussion about the response to GTCS Consultation. This will be summarised and submitted to GTCS in the required format, including responses made on the ACTS committee wiki pages.

Three members of the ACTS committee have places at the Scottish International Summer School on School Leadership.

Venues for future meetings were discussed and will be explored.  The next meeting will be on 29^th August on Cumbrae.

To read the newsletter, click on the image above, or the link below.
acts-newsletter_summer_2009

The ACTS Committee met at Woodfarm High School, East Renfrewshire on Saturday, 25th April.  David was pleased to report that there were 98 Full and Associate members of the association, with email and letter membership invitations being sent out to those who attended the recent reception at the Scottish Parliament and who are not yet members.

A brief discussion took place reflecting on the success of the reception.  Duncan was thanked for organising the fantastic musical segments during the morning.  It was felt that the committee had ensured that the event was well organised and run, with some pointers for development.  Fiona Hyslop’s keynote can be read here.

David asked that all those involved in the association consider sending him useful weblinks which may be of interest to Chartered Teachers.  This could include academic papers, news stories, resources, discussions etc.  All links will be hosted at the ACTS virtual library; details of which will follow.

ACTS will have a table at the GTCS/Scottish Government Chartered Teacher conference, which takes place at the Hilton, Glasgow on Saturday, 30th May, with a keynote from Andy Hargreaves.  A sub-committee is hoping to organise a social event close-by for after the end of conference.  Details will be contained in the next ACTS newsletter which is due to be issued before the end of the month.

ACTS and individual members are invited to take part in the national consultation on the GTCS (’Towards an Independent General Teaching Council for Scotland: Consultation on the future status of the GTCS’).  Some initial points were made, with the recognition that a longer discussion is necessary in order to construct a useful response.  The deadline for which is 26th June.

Finally, we looked into raising the idea of making a regular article contribution to the TESS and raised a request from HMiE for examples of ‘good practice’ by Chartered Teachers.

The next meeting of the ACTS committee will take place in Peebles on Saturday, 13th June.

ACTS can be contacted at actscotland@yahoo.com.

• Please click on the link to read the ACTS Reception report (thanks to Dorothy and Paddy)
  
• To watch an edited recording of the event, please click here
• An ACTS membership form can be downloaded from here.

Invitation to Launch

You are warmly invited to the launch of

The Association of Chartered Teachers Scotland

at 10am on 21^st March 2009 at the Scottish Parliament

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Life-long Learning will attend. Key Speakers will be Matthew MacIver CBE, former Chief Executive of the GTCS, and Walter Humes, Research Professor of Education and Associate Dean, University of the West of Scotland. We will welcome other representatives of the Scottish Government and the GTCS, those with a professional interest in education, and members of the Scottish Press, as well as accredited Chartered Teachers and those on the route, programme providers, and professional organisations such as the EIS and SSTA.

The event will be accompanied by music from Scottish pupils, and refreshments will be provided.

We very much hope you will be able to attend this important occasion.

To acquire tickets for this event please go to

http://tinyurl.com/actslaunch

Tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Join the Association by following the membership links to the left of this page or by downloading and printing the form, here.

The first General Meeting of the association took place on 13th December at The Optima in Glasgow.  Almost thirty teachers who are Chartered or on the route attended, and were informed by Annie McSeveney, Dorothy Coe and David Noble of the progress made by the steering group during 2008.  This included establishing the aims, setting up communication channels such as email, blog, wiki, newsletter and PayPal, and producing a draft constitution (which was adopted during the meeting).   Updates were provided on the formal launch (see below), membership, the Chartered Teacher Glow group, and moves towards charitable status.  Presently, the committee has fourteen members, with one vacancy.  Many thanks to Joe and Joan at the SQA for providing the venue. 

The first meeting of 2009 took place at Hillhead High School in Glasgow on 17th January.  Committee members were given a tour of the association’s blog and basic training on making use of the wiki for group communication.  The formal launch of the association will take place at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Saturday, 21st March.  Already, several eminent educationalists and politicians have agreed to attend, and a sub-committee are working on organising the day and promoting it among all those with an interest in Chartered Teacher.  If you would like to register to attend the launch, please click here.

The next meeting will take place at Woodfarm High School in Thornliebank, East Renfrewshire on Saturday, 21st February.

AGM invite

ACTS membership form

ACTS committee

Exciting news!  The General Meeting of the Association of Chartered Teachers Scotland will take place at 10am on 13th December 2008 at the Don Room, The Optima Building, Robertson Street, Glasgow.

Chartered Teachers (both fully accredited and those who have gained Module 1 and are on the route) and other interested parties are invited.  Above, is a copy of the invitation, including the Agenda, forms for joining the Association and some useful information, all available for you to download.

We would be grateful if you would pass the attached information on to anyone else who might want to come along.

There will be coffee/tea on arrival and the meeting will close by 12, leaving plenty of time for some seasonal shopping if required!

Please let us know if you can join us. Hope to see you there.  You can contact the association at actscotland@yahoo.com.

The steering group are pleased to publish the first edition of the ACTS newsletter.  You can email feedback or contributions, as well as a request for further information on the association to actscotland@yahoo.com.  Details on the formal launch of the association will be emailed to those on the contact list and posted on this site shortly.

Click on this link to open - newsletter_summer_2008

At the end of the successful Chartered Teacher Conference on 7^th June, interested Chartered Teachers and Chartered Teacher candidates met together to discuss progress towards the formation of the Association of Chartered Teachers Scotland (ACTS). Around 50 people stayed on after a busy day to hear an update from Dorothy Coe, Annie McSeveney and Paddy Miller of the ACTS steering group, and to engage in discussion.

The three steering group members explained that the group had developed the priorities produced in discussion at the initial January meeting to draw up a draft list of aims. These are to:

Support the community of Chartered Teachers in all its forms

Encourage communication and collaboration between Chartered Teachers

Encourage the provision of appropriate level CPD opportunities for Chartered Teachers

Develop awareness of the professional identity of Chartered Teachers

Make representation on issues affecting those in the Association of Chartered Teachers Scotland.

Next steps for the group are to:

• Gather details of those interested in becoming more involved by distributing requests for contact details and compiling a database
• Set up means of communication between potential members by an e-newsletter and weblog
• Identify tasks to be undertaken by a working group and identify individuals with appropriate skills
• Establish a functioning working group to take the Association forward democratically
• Organise a launch for the association in September, 2008.

Anyone interested in joining the extended working group (which next meets at 6.30pm on Wednesday, 20th August in Stirling), or in attending the launch of ACTS on Saturday, 27th September (provisional; time and venue to be confirmed), should email actscotland@yahoo.com.

At the Chartered Teacher conference on the 7th of June, some members of the steering group of the Association of Chartered Teachers will speak about the lauch event in September and how to join.  They will also be available to answer questions about the new Association.

A flyer will be available in the conference pack, with a version of it now available, below, for teachers to download.  If you will not be at the Chartered Teacher conference, please download this form, complete, and return to the contact address.

Association of Chartered Teachers - flyer from the steering group